Author: Therissa Toussaint, BSU student
There are many restaurants in Brockton, Massachusetts. Each restaurant has an interesting way of bringing new and authentic food to people that are open to tasting delicious cooked meals. At 364 North Main St. is a bakery name Boulangerie Saint Antoine that cooks mouthwatering and fulling Haitian meals. The owner of Saint Antoine is Richard Poteau and his wife. Both started this business together on March 1995. The three main reasons they were driven to have their own business is mainly because they didn’t want to work for someone else. They wanted to be their own boss. Also, when both lived in Haiti, they originally had a bakery. So, they had prior knowledge on how to run a restaurant. Lastly, when Richard Poteau and his wife arrived in 1995 there wasn’t a lot of Haitian food that reflected the culture. This means that there wasn’t a lot of competition for them. When I asked the daughter of the owner of Boulangerie Saint Antoine the toughest thing her family’s restaurant went through when opening she said, “language barrier, getting a permit, and of course to be able to have financial support.” However, since some of their customers were Haitians, they were able to navigate towards an understatement. Both loved the thought of being their own boss and cooking for those who weren’t able to have access to home cooked meals or those who wanted to try Haitian cuisines but wasn’t able to.
The variety of options they provided their customers helped their business to grow. The love Richard Poteau and his family share with their customer kept the business running. Before they actually started their business, they had to find the right destination that would bring the customer to them. When asked about the toughest part about having a business in 2020. They said “that it was not like 1995 anymore. That means there is always a new compaction rising. So, that’s what continues to happen. Brockton is starting to be filled with flavorful restaurants. This doesn’t entirely hurt our business but help us to continue to think about the future. A lot of things modify and change when comparing 1995 to 2020.” First off, technology has vastly expanded, and it demands for it to be used, because everyone is on it. However, although they do use Facebook it’s difficult to rule out that’s how they obtain most of their customers. They are confident that word to word had connected them to most of their customers. People of younger generation prefer to use technology and older generations most likely heard it from a friend, family member, or an event. Boulangerie Saint Antoine future plans are mostly to renovate, modernize the building and expanding more in social media because they want to make sure they are continuing to stay up to date and adapt while the future continues to change. So, the younger generation and older generation can have many ways to access their delightful home cooked Haitian meal.
Visit Boulangerie Saint Antoine at 364 North Main Street, Brockton, MA
Contact them via telephone: 508-583-9068